Demonic Art (魔功). (2)
Demonic Art (魔功).
It is the authority bestowed by the Heavenly Demon along with demonic energy.
And is referred to as a blessing to Demonic Humans.
It is the fastest way to reach another realm.
A new power beyond one's realm.
Demonic energy, similar to blood energy, enhances the physical body and martial arts.
But depending on the realm, one can become soaked in madness and turn into a madman.
In reality, I've seen plenty of guys who were eroded by demonic energy and turned into monsters.
Demonic Arts are a bit different from this.
For the recipient, it can become an entirely new power.
And the power they possess can evolve by interlocking with the Demonic Art.
The Mado Cheonheupgong I received was, as mentioned above, an entirely new power received from the Heavenly Demon.
The ability to absorb demonic energy from the demonic stones of demonic beasts.
Thanks to that, I solved the problem of my Qi capacity, which was an issue when using Hwagong.
At the same time.
The demonic energy obtained from that influenced my Simgong and strengthened my flames.
What I gained from that was Black Flame (黑炎), mixed with demonic energy.
Thanks to that, I had to live my whole life with a dogshit nickname, but...
'Whoever the bastard was that first came up with it, I'm really going to kill them if I find them.'
Anyway, a Demonic Art compensates for the problems and shortcomings a martial artist has.
And allows them to walk the path they wish to attain, or wish to tread, much faster.
That is the power of the Demonic Art bestowed by the Heavenly Demon.
It is a power that sets a path faster than anyone else and pushes one forward; how could a martial artist craving higher places not be tempted?
The reason many people, regardless of Righteous or Demonic alignments, fall into the path of Demonic Humans is
partly because of the Heavenly Demon's overwhelming strength, but
ultimately, there are that many people who couldn't overcome their walls,
and because they coveted power, they couldn't shake off the temptation.
I, who knows the process and its results,
couldn't possibly not know the power and energy the Palace Lord was currently emitting.
'Demonic Art.'
That was definitely a Demonic Art.
A nauseating energy that suffocated the breath.
The viscous, swelling black mist of the Palace Lord was clearly composed of demonic energy.
In the past, having met the martial artists of the Heukyagung several times in this life,
I could tell that they definitely possessed demonic energy, even if it was murky, but
there was a sense that it was lacking to call them Demonic Humans (魔人).
It was because the demonic energy wasn't fully assimilated with their bodies.
However, the Palace Lord was different.
'That bastard is a real Demonic Human.'
The Palace Lord was a real Demonic Human.
Not only was the proportion of demonic energy greater than internal energy when using martial arts,
but only a Demonic Human could emit such viscous demonic energy.
'I had heard that the Palace Lord's martial arts were similar to black mist, but'
I had only heard about it up to that point.
This was the first time I actually saw it.
'For certain.'
There was no way I could be mistaken about demonic energy.
The bastard was definitely a Demonic Human.
The fact that the Palace Lord was already a Demonic Human meant that the Heukyagung was definitely related to the Demonic Cult, or the Heavenly Demon.
'...This means the Heavenly Demon is already somewhere in this world.'
It was a story I had half-expected already.
Although the Heavenly Demon's first appearance was said to be tearing through the air via the Demonic Mirror,
I had been thinking that he might already be somewhere in this world.
'Surely the Heavenly Demon isn't somewhere in this palace too?'
I prayed that wasn't the case.
If the Heavenly Demon I knew was truly somewhere here,
it could mean we all die.
At the very least, the Heavenly Demon I knew was such an existence.
Along with the secrets of the Heukyagung and the encounter with the Blood Demon,
I had expected this to be the case as well, but...
'Fuck.'
Thinking about how my shitty predictions never miss, I become endlessly anxious.
How can life be this shit?
'Still, the fact that the Palace Lord came out must mean Gu Huibi is okay.'
The reason I purposely broke the wall to make a noise and burst out energy to attract the Palace Lord's attention
was because the Cheonro bead, which had been practically dead, suddenly activated.
Something that hadn't worked at some point, this time showed me the view on its own.
The scene I saw was exactly the moment the Palace Lord and Gu Huibi were having a conversation in the prison.
However, from what I could see, the situation wasn't in a good state.
'...If I had been even a little later,'
the Palace Lord would have definitely killed Gu Huibi.
The emotions contained in the Palace Lord's eyes, and in the fingertips that hesitated for even a brief moment,
I could see thoughts wandering about what to do with Gu Huibi.
'Damn it.'
I didn't have time to think of another way, so I just recklessly made a scene, but
thanks to that, it seems his level of alertness has clearly risen.
'Even so, there was no other way.'
It was a method where if even this didn't work, it would be over anyway.
I put strength into the hand that was holding Namgung Bi-a's arm.
As if she immediately realized with what intention I grabbed it,
she immediately erased her presence even more.
At that sight, I swallowed a gasp inwardly.
'It's not supposed to be this easy just because I told her to.'
I was dumbfounded.
I was going to at least cast a barrier if I thought it wouldn't work,
but when I signaled her, she actually just did it right away.
Anyway, thanks to that, it seemed we could avoid their gaze well, but
the problem was from now on.
'My head hurts too much.'
Since I drew his attention, the alertness would have risen to the extreme.
Furthermore, there was no guarantee that the Palace Lord wouldn't try to harm Gu Huibi again.
'In the first place, if he intended to kill her like that, why kidnap her?'
I needed to grasp his intentions first, but
the problem was that no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't figure out the reason for taking Gu Huibi.
Of course, it was something that hadn't happened in my past life, and I didn't properly know the purpose of the Heukyagung either.
'Infiltration is too dangerous.'
In a situation like this, even the leader of the Seven Nights Assassination Squad, that famous King of Darkness, would hesitate to infiltrate.
The inside of the formation was completely different from the outside.
First, there was no fog covering the surroundings.
Because of that, if I moved incorrectly, they would notice much faster.
Moreover, the terrain was different.
'How on earth did they do this?'
Not only did they hide the inside from being seen from the outside,
but they created it like a completely different world.
I've never seen anything like this...
'Wait, I have. I have seen something like this.'
Talking about it helped me recall.
The memory of seeing such an absurd formation.
Around the time I found the Geumcheon Yeonga's secret cave in Sichuan.
It felt similar to the formation I saw back then.
'Is it a coincidence?'
It was ambiguous to say it wasn't a coincidence,
and it was also ambiguous to say it was a coincidence.
'The possibility of it being Taejeolgyi's work is high.'
The old man full of age spots who was in charge of the Demonic Cult's mechanisms.
If it was that man, he might be able to make something like this.
Besides, the mechanism encountered at the Huashan Sect was also Taejeolgyi's work, so I could at least tell that the old man was currently in the Heukyagung.
'I can't just charge into this head-on.'
Even if my realm has risen, recalling that even the fierce battle with the First Elder, who was like a living corpse, wasn't easy...
it probably wouldn't be a situation where I could defeat the Palace Lord one-on-one.
'That's why I'm hiding like this.'
Moreover, not only the Palace Lord, but I didn't even know exactly how many martial artists were in the Heukyagung right now.
Blindly breaking through the front door and burning everything down was something possible for me in my past life.
Right now, I lacked that power by a long shot.
Knowing that, ultimately, I had to wait for the right time now.
The right time to dig into that narrow gap.
And that time...
'Just a little more.'
In my estimation, there really wasn't much left.
Time flowed.
Day and night switched,
and only silence flowed inside the prison where Gu Huibi was.
The Palace Lord disappeared with a short noise,
and hadn't appeared since.
Should I call this a relief?
Gu Huibi was still looking outside the prison bars with sleepless eyes.
- Ruru
----ru.
The old man's snoring incessantly rang in her ears, but
she had reached a point where she didn't even care anymore.
Rather than the old man's snoring,
surveying the current situation was more important to Gu Huibi.
The Palace Lord definitely brought her here, even appearing at the front lines because he needed her.
'But why earlier?'
Gu Huibi knew she had almost died earlier.
The Palace Lord had clearly tried to kill her.
This was not a mistake.
'Something must have been off.'
It must have been from the moment he saw the child and herself together.
The atmosphere of the Palace Lord had changed significantly.
The child. Yes, that child seemed to be the problem.
'Was staying too close to him the issue?'
The reason she momentarily provoked the Palace Lord's displeasure.
Gu Huibi wondered if that was it.
Was it because she had talked with the child for less than a day?
'What exactly is the problem with that?'
She couldn't know, but to Gu Huibi, the reason the Palace Lord tried to kill her seemed closer to that.
Misguided paternal love? That didn't seem to be it.
Since they didn't seem to have that kind of relationship in the first place.
As for why he treated the child like that amid everything,
to Gu Huibi, it was simply because he was a 'child'.
She could well understand the emotions contained in the child's eyes.
Along with the memories of looking after Gu Yang-cheon, Gu Yeon-seo, and Gu Ryeong-hwa when they were young,
it was probably because she remembered her own eyes as seen through Gu Yang-cheon's mother.
That was why she felt even more so.
The dry eyes of the child back then were definitely craving affection.
Even if she didn't know what the Palace Lord wanted,
to Gu Huibi, she just couldn't pass by that.
It was just that the time was short so they couldn't even have a proper conversation.
'What exactly is that child?'
She could tell from the moment she first saw him that he was no ordinary child.
The gaze that instinctively looked down on everyone,
and the unknown atmosphere felt from the child.
And Gu Huibi knew one more existence that possessed such an atmosphere.
Moreover, for their faces to resemble each other that much.
Could this be called a coincidence?
'No.'
Gu Huibi shook her head.
No matter what, this couldn't happen by coincidence.
- Rrrr.
Gu Huibi's expression deeply frowned at the snoring sound coming from behind.
"...Good grief."
She wanted to ask him something, but Muk Noin hadn't seemed like he had any intention of waking up for a few hours.
She even tried pinching his nose and hitting him slightly.
Perhaps because his physical abilities were severely diminished, it seemed to only tickle the old man.
Of course, it was unknown whether Muk Noin himself knew all about this,
but somehow, it felt like he did.
"Tsk."
Out of frustration with the stifling situation, she clicked her tongue without realizing it.
She didn't know what to do.
She felt completely at a loss.
The helplessness of not being able to do anything and not knowing anything
made her already heavy head feel even more stifling.
Still.
'Pull yourself together.'
Gu Huibi straightened her sluggish gaze.
When finding a way to escape was barely enough as a goal,
she couldn't afford to fall apart like this.
So first.
"Elder Muk, please wake up for a bit."
She needed to wake that old man who seemed to know something first.
Muk Noin didn't wake up no matter how much she shook him.
Gu Huibi wondered if she should really hit him to wake him up.
How could he sleep all day snoring like that?
Eventually, with the thought that it couldn't be helped, she made up her mind to wake Muk Noin even by hitting him,
and as she lightly lifted her arm,
"Is it daytime now?"
Muk Noin spoke at that moment.
"...!"
Gu Huibi was startled because Muk Noin, who she thought was sleeping, spoke in such a clear voice.
"Daytime...?"
"Yes, what time is it now?"
Gu Huibi, trying hard to hide her bewilderment, examined the tiny window gap in the prison and spoke.
"It is daytime, the sun is bright... Hm?"
Gu Huibi, who spoke in a rarely flustered voice,
frowned as she looked through the window gap.
It was definitely daytime, but
something was different.
Where the blue sky should have been...
a slightly reddened sky filled the space.
'...What is that?'
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At first glance, it looked like the sky had a sunset,
but that couldn't be.
It was still early, not even noon yet.
"Yes, yes."
Seeing that, Muk Noin nodded.
And then he raised his sprawled body and spoke.
"It seems they have finally come."
Gu Huibi's eyes trembled slightly at Muk Noin's words.
Only then did she seem to understand what that sky meant.
The eyes of the Palace Lord, who was sitting quietly resting, opened.
The blurry purple light was still there.
The Palace Lord, opening his eyes, slowly raised his body.
"Huuu..."
It was impossible not to know.
With such dense internal energy filling the surroundings, how could he not know?
"...I thought you might have changed a little, but you are still the same."
The Palace Lord moved his steps toward the railing.
Reaching the railing, he could see the bright sky spreading beyond the formation.
It was bright. So bright that it even looked red.
Seeing that, the Palace Lord felt cold sweat running down his back.
"I thought he was an old tiger whose teeth had all fallen out."
A tiger holed up in the mountains, dreaming only of the day it would die.
With all its teeth worn out and fallen,
he thought it was just barely clinging to life, hiding in its cave.
"Even if time has passed, a Great Tiger (大虎) is still a Great Tiger."
Looking at that red sky, the Palace Lord could tell.
That was purely an illusion created by vast internal energy.
A flame that started from a single thought rose to the sky and manifested as intent.
It was too fearsome a sight to say it was merely created by a human.
In other words, it meant that a single person's power had created that.
Hwarrrr!
The fog outside the formation was engulfed in flames.
The fog, which even Gu Yang-cheon's internal energy couldn't handle, was pushed back by the flames and was disappearing for a brief moment.
The deep red, almost bloody flames relentlessly lashed out as if to melt the world.
What was visible before his eyes was like a tsunami.
A massive wave made of flames.
Seeing that, the Palace Lord recalled a certain person.
A ghost-like martial artist with red hair deeply dyed from internal energy, who burned people alive with an indifferent expression.
'Flame Ghost (炎鬼).'
That was definitely the flame emitted by the Flame Ghost.
Which meant.
It meant that the Flame Ghost, Gu Cheol-un, had appeared on this land.
His appearance, revealing his presence like that and boldly approaching the enemy,
itself showed what kind of martial artist Gu Cheol-un was, but
'However, if so...'
the Palace Lord couldn't help but frown at another thought.
It was a question how Gu Cheol-un knew of this place and appeared, but
there was a bigger problem than that.
The Palace Lord lightly leapt into the air over the railing and thought.
'Then who was the one who made the wall like that?'
The commotion that occurred just before.
If the Flame Ghost appeared outside the barrier like that,
whose doing was the earlier commotion?
'Something is twisted.'
The Palace Lord had a premonition.
That the situation was flowing strangely.